Space Exploration & Seasonal Ingredients!

Over the last two weeks, the toddlers have been getting stuck into all things Autumn. As the weather transitions, the toddlers have been able to watch the leaves turn orange and begin falling to the ground and have collected lots of leaves, conkers, pine cones, twigs etc for their artwork. In the garden, the children really enjoyed an activity where they used a mix of their imagination and real items to create soup. The children were given small root vegetables and collected the garden material themselves. Using pots, pans and water gathered from the mud kitchen, they began combining the ingredients to make their soup. India poured water into a pot and said, “I use carrot, mix it, mix it”, and then went onto using a parsnip. After the soup was cooked and cooled, Blair picked up a serving spoon and began offering it out for others to try. She held the spoon out and said, “Eat, eat” and “Yum!”. 

Inside, the children have been exploring outer space and engaging in exciting sensory experiences, including zooming into outer space. With the children’s help we had set up a sensory corner using blankets, netting and lots of glow up toys and lights. The children entered, sat down and we shot up to space! The children sang the song ‘Zoom Zoom’ as they flew about, looking at the lights and listening to outer space sounds and music. Oliver said, “Shhh! Listen how quiet”, as he calmed his friends down to listen to the space sounds. 

The last few weeks in the under twos room have been filled with lots of different art activities. The children especially enjoyed taking part in some berry painting. Finley loved squashing the berries in his hands and spreading the juices around his piece of paper; and even snuck a little taste of the berries with a big smile on his face. Santiago looked at the berries with a puzzled look, unsure what to do. The adults demonstrated squeezing the berries as Santiago he began to use his hands to make splotches on his paper. Rafe enjoyed squeezing the berries in his hand and watching as the bits squeezed out between his fingers and dropped onto the table.

Outside, the children had lots of fun with a scooping activity in the tough tray with pasta, cups and spoons. Max watched and listened as the pasta was poured into the tray and smiled when they crashed and crunched as they landed. Margaux had fun trying to catch the pasta as it was poured from a cup, babbling away as she did so. Sienna, however, enjoyed using a spoon to mix around the pasta in the tray and using it to bump the pasta; listening to the noises as the pasta cracked and smashed.